12 Facts From History You Probably Didn't Know

In 1536, these three cages, used to hold the dismembered remnants of opposing religious leaders in the region, still hang on St. Lambert’s Cathedral in Münster, Germany

The Dani People sever their fingers off every time a loved one pass away.

Diarrhea was among the leading cause of deaths during the American Civil War. The ordeal was so bad and very widespread that the Union and Confederacy did have an honor code to not shoot an opposing soldier who was pooping.

Lived for 86 years, Letizia Ramolino, the mother of Napoleon Bonaparte, existed long enough to witness the collapse of the French monarchy, the French Revolution, the coronation of her son as Emperor, his son's death, the collapse of his empire, and the reformation of the monarchy.

For about 2,400 years, giving someone “the finger” has been use as an obscene gesture. The middle finger embodies a penis, then the two neighboring fingers represent the testicles.

Back then, Nikola Tesla paid an overdue hotel bill with a ‘working model’ of his ‘death beam’. He urged the management never to open it without appropriate precaution to avoid detonation. When he died in 1943, the box was opened and they found nothing in it but a bunch of old lab components.

At the height of the California gold rush, an egg would ridiculously cost $25 in today’s money, coffee is around $100 per pound, and a pair of boots would cost more than $2,500.

The young man standing behind George Washington and bearing the American flag in the famous painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” is 18-year-old officer and the future president James Monroe.

Catherine the Great made a few of the first roller coasters on her palace grounds.

In the 16th century, a courtier in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, Edward de Vare, accidentally broke wind, he was so disconcerted he left England without admonition and didn’t return for seven years. When he went back, Elizabeth greeted him by saying: “My Lord, I had forgotten the fart.”

The famous song La Cucaracha is about a cockroach that died because it can’t smoke weed.

The highest peak in the continental United States, Mount Whitney, is only 85 miles away from Death Valley which is the lowest point in the continental United States. They are actually in the same county!